


first mate’s birthday

by nakayuz



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alcohol, Birthday, Birthday Party, Caring Roronoa Zoro, Character Study, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drinking, Established Relationship, Fluff, Loneliness, M/M, Mainly Roronoa Zoro, Minor Nami/Nefertari Vivi, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Nakama, Nakamaship, Roronoa Zoro's Birthday, Roronoa Zoro-centric, Sleeping Together, drunk, zolu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 10:09:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21390412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nakayuz/pseuds/nakayuz
Summary: the straw hats weren’t normally all asleep at the same time. there was always someone awake- on watch or suffering another case of insomnia. but just a little too much to drink due to their first mate’s birthday, and said mate’s consistent memories of his past managed to make the impossible happen.
Relationships: Brook & Roronoa Zoro, Franky & Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy & Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro, Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates & Roronoa Zoro, Nami & Roronoa Zoro, Nico Robin & Roronoa Zoro, Roronoa Zoro & Everyone, Roronoa Zoro & Tony Tony Chopper, Roronoa Zoro & Usopp, Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji
Comments: 10
Kudos: 229





	first mate’s birthday

november 11th- the first mate of the straw hat pirate’s birthday.

the party celebrating wouldn’t have been complete without large amounts of alcoholic drinks consumed- rum, wine, whisky, liquor, and of course his favorite: sake.

it was all the captain’s idea. and said captain was laying next to him, face heated as he thought he was speaking to his first mate, but the only thing that came from his mouth were slurred words and incomprehensible mumbling. there was a pathetic looking smile across his face, his eyes looking no where in particular. the source of his behavior was gripped in his hand, spilling out onto the lawn of the _sunny_, the strong smell of grass fading as the alcohol took over.

the swordsman can’t help but chuckle. he takes another drink from his bottle and looks around him- everyone in the crew spread out on deck, all drunk and dancing and laughing, knowing very well it was only a matter of time until they were all passed out, and morning would come with a collective hangover.

nami was sitting with robin, babbling on about her weakness of strong sailor women and princesses, mentioning a blue haired beauty she had once met. robin smiles, not really listening as her wine was beginning to make her dizzy. nami was a loud drunk, while drinking often just made robin sleepy.

sanji was dancing strangely with chopper in his arms, swinging him around to the screwed up tempo of brook’s violin, playing a barely recognizable rendition of _bink’s sake_, a strage visible pink hue on his boney cheeks.-how it happened was a mystery in itself. after all, he had no cheeks nor blood to make such a color!-he said before the whole party began that he would just stick to milk, but the rest insisted, handing him bottles of rum. same story for chopper, the youngest of them all and ultimately the one with the smallest tolerance to the stuff. already nauseous from the tequila shared with sanji, the spinning only made his head hurt more. the cook wouldn’t stop- along with nami, he was quite loud and eccentric when in this state.

franky had his guitar out, trying to play along with the new composition, but he could hardly follow along. his head drooped and he couldn’t quite push the strings hard enough to get a solid sound. usopp, to the side, still applaud loudly and cheered him on, laughing and trying to sing along too. his voice cracked and hiccups interrupted, making the performance not as enjoyable- but with everyone destroyed with alcohol, it was the best thing they have ever heard.

it takes a lot for zoro to even become tipsy, and no ordinary sake would do the trick. even with this, he couldn’t help but find himself holding back.

zoro never celebrated his birthday- he was always alone in the first place. even when he traveled with the two bounty hunters, not once had zoro mentioned his birthday, nor did the two bother to ask. most of the time he didn’t even know what the day was, so he wouldn’t have known it passed until some newspaper or source finally shared the date.

until of course his one-of-a-kind crew came along.

while the straw hats normally didn’t care about what day was what and who’s birthday was when, it was always their captain who stayed on top of it all.

which was, in all honesty, a strange thing to them all. 

he never was up to date with world news, and every time it was necessary for him to know it was simplified just for him to understand. even then he’d forget only a mere minutes afterward. he didn’t even know what year they were in, and could just barely read- whenever he did, he’d always have to ask  _ what kanji is this _ and  _i forgot this character_ . 

then he would blame his lack of intellect on the fact he got headaches from all those characters piled together on the page, and that thinking too much gave him fevers, to which their doctor would diagnose him as  dumb.

but his love for his own  _nakama_ filled the void of knowledge, and thus he memorized their birthdays. it’s impressive to watch him recite the days and months.

with that, the first mate’s birthday had been celebrated with his  nakama about three times now. even during the two year separation did he feel the presence of them, and he knew very well they were thinking of him.

and suddenly the loneliness he had felt for years- ever since his best friend had passed, the kind that he had gotten so used to and almost comforted by- seemed so far away. he forgot what it felt like to be lonely.

a smile spreads on his lips. a strange warmth rose in his chest, causing him to breathe deeply. his smile grew wider as he let himself look over the crew once again, memories with each of them flowing through his mind as he observes. 

he was surrounded by, and even the thought makes his heart beat a little faster and it even sickens him in a way he didn’t know he could feel,  _love_ . it was strange. the faint memories he had of his home with his own mother and father were replaced with this new family that he would choose over blood any day.

zoro takes another drink as his eyes fall to the captain beside him. he expected to see him asleep, snoring with the sake bottle rolling from out of his hand, but was met with his dark eyes staring right up at him, a small smile on his face. 

“woah,” zoro says, a bit startled. “you’re still awake?”

“your smile,” he mumbles, and a light hiccup follows. “zoro should smile more.”

zoro can’t help but blush a bit. he chuckles and shakes his head, unconsciously smiling. he notices how he has lowered his guard, allowing himself to show more emotion than he normally does. he doesn’t try to change it. “how drunk are you, luffy?”

luffy pushes himself up, bringing his arms over his head and stretching. “drunk?” he looks around, watching sanji collapse with chopper still in his arms and franky fall over onto his guitar. a crack sounds from the fall, and its assumed that the poor guitar was crushed under the weight of the cyborg. “ah... what?”

“we’re all drinking, do you remember?” zoro holds his bottle up. the new _bink’s sake_ begins to die out with usopp’s singing, a couple of sour notes sounding as the violin falls with the two. “we were, at least.”

“yeah,” luffy watched as robin lays down, nami doing the same. she continued to talk until robin swung an extra hand over her mouth. “because...”

luffy looks up at zoro, who is drinking the rest of the liquid in the bottle, pulling it away from his mouth and looking through it at the emptiness. he sighs and sets the bottle next to an already started pile of empty sake.

“happy birthday, zoro!” luffy tackles zoro to the ground, almost making them crush the bottles under the swordsman’s back, avoided only by zoro’s arm pushing them out of the way.

luffy rubs his face into zoro’s chest, giggling. “zoro’s birthday! how could i forget?” he hiccups. 

“if i fell on that...” zoro’s still recovering from a near experience of glass shattered into his back. he shudders from the thought, then directs his attention to the face in his chest and arms around his neck. “luffy-“

“zoro’s birthday!” luffy says, looking up. “my faaavorite day!”

zoro freezes. his eyes scan the other’s face, catching the still drunk hue on his cheeks. he sighs. “you’re drunk, luffy.” he sits up from his frozen state, the captain still hanging on. “you should sleep.”

luffy pulls himself into zoro’s lap, wrapping his legs are his torso. he hums. “but it’s zoro’s birthday.”

zoro stands up, supporting luffy up with a hand. he looks around the ship, and scans the surrounding ocean- they had anchored by a large rock as to hopefully hide from any possible ships nearby in order to have this party. it was risky, but the captain had insisted so much that it couldn’t be helped. 

the first mate makes his way from the deck to the men’s quarters, taking once last glance behind him before he enters the room. he’d made a note to return and help the rest move back to their rooms- if that wouldn’t work, then to bring a couple blankets and turn off the deck’s lights.

closing the door behind him, he walks over to turn on a small lamp at the table in front of the sofa, the room lighting up.

zoro turns around and bends over the sofa until luffy’s back is against the cushions. he reaches behind himself and unlocks luffy’s legs, letting them fall and then reaches for his arms around his neck, a hand brushing against his dark hair.

“luffy, let go.” zoro says quietly. “i’m putting you on the sofa.”

the arms from his neck do the same, and zoro pulls away, watching luffy fall asleep as his head hit the sofa, beginning to snore lightly.

zoro finds himself lingering, studying his captain’s face. was this sleeping man really the one who changed his life in such a way that he believed he would never return to the lone wolf lifestyle be had lived in for so long? he reaches out and places a hand on his cheek, his thumb rubbing softly. zoro bends down and plants a gentle kiss on his forehead, then pulls the straw hat from under his head and places it next to the lamp.

he stretches and walks out of the men’s headquarters back onto deck. he scans the sunny’s lawn, the scattered crew members knocked out- then he checks to make sure they’re still in the clear.

he starts with the girls near the foremast. he shakes nami’s shoulder as gently as he could, knowing very well how beastly she can be in this state. she stirs and opens her eyes. “...hey.” she mumbles, the process of sobering up starting.

zoro turns to robin, and he knows she won’t wake up. “can you walk?” he lifts her up with an arm under her shoulders and legs, careful as to not drop or disturb her sleep.

“what’re you doing?” nami rubs her eyes and sits up.

“i’m getting everyone back in bed.”

“oh.” nami’s too out to say anything more, and turns to standing up unsteadily, reaching out and using zoro’s arm as support. “thank you, even if it’s your birthday.”

“it’s the least i can do.” matching his pace with nami, the two walk to the girl’s quarters up the stairs from the deck, entering the room. zoro’s never been, but the feeling of finally entering such a room doesn’t do anything to him. the perverts of the ship, on the other hand... he’s glad he’s the one getting them to bed.

zoro sets robin down on the bed, pulling an extra blanket over her, then looks up to nami face planting into the sheets, sleeping once more.

he isn’t too sure of his relationship with the girls, but he enjoys their presence just as much. nami gets on his nerves every second of the day, and robin’s too sly and strange to understand, but he’d knew if someone so much as looked at them the wrong way... his swords would be happy to have such bloodshed.

flicking off a lamp to the room, he leaves and returns to the deck. he looked over the rest, thinking.  _ i’ll wake franky... brook’s probably awake too... i can carry usopp and chopper... i’ll leave shit cook... _

with a quick whisper of yosh, he walks to brook and usopp. zoro takes usopp’s arm and hauls him over his shoulder, and then nudges brook with his foot. “i know you’re awake, brook.” he says.

brook’s head moves slightly. “ah,” he says, sitting up from his awkward position, “is it morning..?”

“no. you’re really drunk, go lay down. luffy’s already in there.” zoro grabs the back of brook’s collar and pulls him to his feet, then turns on his heels and walks back into the men’s quarters, brook following slowly.

locating usopp’s bed, he sets him down as gently as he can. usopp turns and throws his arm over the side of the bunk. he watches brook enter and collapse on the one next to him. 

_two more to go_ , zoro thinks, watching his two _nakama_ begin to snore. he starts to remember when he had called usopp onto the merry go a couple years back, the beginning of his journey and ultimately the friendship, and then how he had unintentionally fought for brook against the wano swordsman, returning his shadow, and the short talk by the grave of both the rumbar pirates and  _ yubashiri _ . 

then he returns to deck.

zoro kicks franky’s large shoulder -though that large metal sphere in its place was anything but- and the cyborg stirs and groans, pushing himself up. zoro can see what’s left of the guitar that was smashed. he won’t be happy when he finds out about that.

he pretty much repeats the same words said to brook. “you’re real drunk, franky. go lay down somewhere else, you’ll catch a cold out here.”

“wow...” franky’s words are just as slurred as the rest, and he’s up swaying on his feet, “you’re being  suuper kind, zoro.” he gives a huge thumbs up. “h-“ a hiccup and a couple of steps later he looks back, “happy birthday.” and then he disappears into the lower part of the _sunny_. zoro watches him leave, remembering when he had hated the guy for some time, but then had found himself fighting by his side, all for a similar goal. 

zoro turns away and begins peeling the intoxicated chopper from sanji’s arms, holding back a laugh at the way the cook whined, thinking a woman had just left his arms, and holds chopper to his chest gently. 

he is out cold. 

zoro smiles and pats the top of his hat, then glances down at sanji, who’s pathetically rolling in the grass, not quite awake but not quite asleep. he sighs, and sets the sleeping reindeer on the top of his head, making sure he could balance him correctly, and reaches down, pulling sanji up by an arm and wraps it around his neck.

surprisingly, sanji doesn’t refuse, only leans more onto the swordsman, mumbling something about the beautiful women of the crew while allowing zoro to support the weight he couldn’t.

he practically drags sanji to the quarters, managing to keep chopper atop his head. once in the room, he throws sanji on the bunk above usopp, and places chopper on the bunk above brook’s. 

the memories of chopper’s home town and the way he and his mentor helped cure their navigator, and all those times he had helped his own crew fill zoro’s mind, as well as all those times he and sanji had to inevitably work together, and he can’t help but recognize the synchronization they really had. he pulls a blanket over chopper and decides to go back onto deck.

shutting the door to the men’s quarters, leaving him to his own devices, he sighs loudly and looks out. 

it’s empty, the only items being empty bottles and clear plates scattered around the lawn, as well as the crushed guitar. the ocean is still clear, still vast as ever. 

zoro turns all of the deck and stringed lights off, then grabs another bottle of sake, and climbs the rigging to get himself into the crow’s nest, the place where he spent most of his time.

the crow’s nest is mainly used as a gym by zoro, so the whole room smells of sweat and is a lot hotter compared to the men’s quarters. but, the view was pretty and the seats were comfortable. he liked it there.

zoro plops down onto the cushioned seat next to a large window looking out into the world, and he pops the cork off of the bottle, taking a swig as he can feel a bit of exhaustion creeping up on him. with the absence of their musician’s music, it’s quiet, and he’s drawn back to the memories of the years spent alone. it strange, he thinks, just how often his mind wanders to those memories. especially tonight.

he starts to study the stars instead, trying to look for constellations within him the way his old master had once taught him. he remembers an aged hand on his shoulder, comforting and warm as he focused on the lights above, wanting to see those patterns that the man had described so often. even grown up, zoro is still unable to find those patterns, he only remembers the meanings behind them all.

the taste of the sake in his mouth grows sour, and he resorts to corking it and setting it on the ground away from him. he yawns, resting his chin in his hand as he looks out the window once more, before closing his eyes, exhaling out of his nose.

the creaking of a trapdoor some feet away jerks him from the sleep that was just starting to take him, and he looks over to see a raven haired boy push himself inside, grunting as he fell over onto his back after bringing his legs inside, the trapdoor closing loudly. the boy looks up and smiles as they make eye contact.

“i thought you fell asleep.” zoro says, turning towards his captain and straightening his posture.

luffy gets off of the ground and dusts his shorts off, looking back at him again with that same grin. zoro sees it so often, yet he knows that it’s something he’ll never get used to as his heart skips a beat. “i was. but i woke up.”

“are you sober?” luffy walks and sits down next to his swordsman, crossing his legs in the seat.

“how should i know?” there’s a breathy laugh before he glances at the bottle on the ground. “zoro’s not drinking?”

zoro shrugs. “i’m done for tonight.”

“that’s strange.” luffy says, crossing his arms. “do you want something else? robin says she found really good wine from that last village we were at. i can go get it-“ he’s cut off as zoro pulls him into a hug, his arms wrapping tightly around his waist and resting his head on his shoulder. “zoro?”

“i don’t need anything else to drink tonight.” he sighs.

luffy uncrossed his legs and allows himself to be pushed by the man’s weight so that he is now laying down, and his head is against the cushion. he rests one hand in zoro’s hair and the other on his back, his thumb rubbing soft circles. it’s a bit of an awkward position for luffy, but zoro seems comfortable, and he settles with that. 

“thanks for the party.” zoro says into the red fabric of his captain’s shirt, “thank you for bringing me with you.”

“zoro’s being sweet.” luffy giggles, ruffling his green hair, “are you sure  _you’re_ not drunk?”

zoro snorts. “i’m sure.” 

the two are quiet, only enjoying each other’s presence and touch as luffy continues to rub those circles, relaxing the tense muscles in zoro’s back, his breathing slowing as the exhaustion from before starts to make its return. luffy starts to hum quietly, a weird tune he must have made up, and zoro can feel the soft vibrations in his chest, a smile forming on his lips.

there’s the sound of wind blowing outside, and the thousand sunny sways gently, the adam’s wood creaking along. they could only barely hear the lapping of waves against her, maybe even the mikan tree’s leaves dancing with it all. but in the moment, they couldn’t help but focus on each other, the sounds of their breathing and the way the captain continues to hum his dumb song.

zoro’s the one to fall asleep first, indicated from the growing sound of snoring. it makes luffy hold a laugh back, knowing he could just as easily wake him up as he made him fall asleep. 

luffy shifts to become more comfortable, then stretches his arms far enough to flick a switch, the lights of the crow’s nest turning off. with a little use of haki, he clears the area and relaxes along with the man sleeping atop of him.

the straw hats weren’t normally all asleep at the same time. there was always someone awake- on watch or suffering another case of insomnia. but just a little too much to drink due to their first mate’s birthday, and said mate’s consistent memories of his past managed to make the impossible happen.

the next morning they would all rise at different times, waltzing into the kitchen where their cook was already preparing an abundance of comfort food to die down the effects of their crippling hangovers, clueless as to why they woke up in their respective beds when they swear they passed out on deck.

with a soft kiss to his head, it was zoro who ended up rising last, somehow awoken by that love that had torn the loneliness away from him.

**Author's Note:**

> a birthday gift to the lovely zoro.
> 
> this whole thing is a bit all over the place and unplanned. it was going to be a whole bunch of things but i ended up trying to tie everything together and ended it on a soft note.
> 
> i hope you enjoyed.


End file.
